Carved Glass- A brief history in Innovation

From the 19th century, various types of fancy glass started to become significant branches of the decorative arts. Cameo glass was revived for the first time since the Romans, initially mostly used for pieces in a neo-classical style. The Art Nouveau movement in particular made great use of glass, with René Lalique, Émile Gallé, and Daum of Nancy important names in the first French wave of the movement, producing coloured vases and similar pieces, often in cameo glass, and also using lustre techniques. Louis Comfort Tiffany in America specialized in secular stained glass, mostly of plant subjects, both in panels and his famous lamps. From the 20th century, some glass artists began to class themselves as in effect sculptors working in glass, and as part of the fine arts.

Several of the most common techniques for producing glass art include: blowing, kiln-casting, fusing, slumping, pate-de-verre, flame-working, hot-sculpting and cold-working. Cold work includes traditional stained glass work as well as other methods of shaping glass at room temperature. Glass can also be cut with a diamond saw, or copper wheels embedded with abrasives, and polished to give gleaming facets; the technique used in creating Waterford crystal. Art is sometimes etched into glass via the use of acid, caustic, or abrasive substances. Traditionally this was done after the glass was blown or cast. In the 1920s a new mould-etch process was invented, in which art was etched directly into the mold, so that each cast piece emerged from the mold with the image already on the surface of the glass. As the types of acids used in this process are extremely hazardous, abrasive methods have gained popularity.

Another technique is devitrification.

Objects made out of glass include not only traditional objects such as vessels (bowls, vases, bottles, and other containers), paperweights, marbles, beads, but an endless range of sculpture and installation art as well. Coloured glass is often used, though sometimes the glass is painted, innumerable examples exist of the use of stained glass.

It was not until much later that carved glass made its first appearance in the United Kingdom shortly after the Industrial revolution. An unknown artist carved panels for a cathedral shortly before passing away, taking with him the secrets to his techniques. The works are no longer in existence, but the legacy lives on.

In 1984, Sergio Alberto Teixeira Ivens Ferraz de Freitas of Mozambique revived the art form in Durban of South Africa. His secret techniques use silica and diamonds with the force of wind through compressed air and pneumatics. All natural bi products from the process make it environmentally safe. It is a laborious and difficult craft with no room for error, often the most hazardous conditions for the artist are in the chamber, where he risks contracting acute silicosis. The applications which set this form of decorative glass aside are endless, providing modern architectural glass applications with a means to showcasing and developing highly ornate and beautiful artistic concepts. Sergio Alberto de Freitas began his career with a focus on creating furniture ranging from dining room tables to bedroom suites and decorative mirrors. Gradually moving toward the fine arts, never before had the art form seen the kind of scale of works that remains unprecedented. His son, Sergio Alexander Ivens Ferraz de Freitas, myself, began designing commercially for these applications at the tender age of ten years old in 1986.

Over the next 20 years prior to his retirement, Sergio Alberto and his son lead the forefront of innovation in glass techniques and applications setting the trends, many of which are still employed today by various glass carvers across the globe. But it was only much later during his fantastic journey through art in glass that the impetus for this kind of artwork grew internationally. At first other artists began experimenting in this medium very crudely, but gladly it has improved as new generations have taken advances in technology in their favour to explore this form of expression.To date, though few, there are a handful of artists in the USA, Canada, Germany and Japan that have managed to produce some significant results in the craft. All of the techniques that exist to date proudly had their beginnings through individual and collaborative efforts, stemming from these early beginnings under his trend setting innovation.

The original techniques remained a closely guarded family trade secret, giving superior depth and detail with unlimited innovative finishes. A legacy of perpetual innovation in glass carving that lives on, but I am eager to teach and share this beautiful craft, from techniques and technical support to contemporary art and architectural application. I remain as passionate as ever, in what is still a rare art form, striving to master and develop the art´s use and market.

HOW TO CARVE GLASS